restore or leave original?

[obxharry]

which is better to do with fox guns?

[thuddddddd]

depends on who you talk to, or what your intentions are for the gun.... for me restore/hot rod them...... but all I own are sterly's and A's...... Did a 16 AE with #3's a couple of years ago... new wood, skeleton butt.. left the receiver and barrels alone.... I like it, it fits and I can hit stuff with it... just had a 20ga sterly restocked.. most of the CC is off the receiver.... it's about 5 3/4 lbs with 28" barrels ... it feels like a light saber in my hands and is deadly on grouse and woodcock.... my next 2 projects are a little more involved.... an A extractor 12ga with 28"'s and late engraving (that was my G-fathers, from new) I'm having it restocked and adding a set of early A 30" barrels as well for a 2 barrel set.. phez and clays..... my other project is a 30" 20 ga sterly.... I was going to do a full race hot rod on it, but came across a late 16 A extractor with 28" #4 Krupps and a weird single trigger thing... so I'm pulling the triggers and barrels from the sterly and adding them to the A... new stock,.. semi beaver on the 20's and a splinter on the 16's

[tony williamson]

i have an early A grade which i bought for 400 bucks cause the outside of the barrels were slightly pitted. i got Bill Schwarz in Elijay Ga to fix them. he filed all the pits out, rust blued them and recased the receiver. wood was fairly good so i left it alone. good pretty shooter A grade 12 for $1000.

[vaturkey]

i have an early A grade which i bought for 400 bucks cause the outside of the barrels were slightly pitted. i got Bill Schwarz in Elijay Ga to fix them. he filed all the pits out, rust blued them and recased the receiver. wood was fairly good so i left it alone. good pretty shooter A grade 12 for $1000.

Had Bill do some work for me long ago. Sure would like to see some pictures of his current case coloring.

[Fin2Feather]

Love 'em as they are. But that's just me.

[Twice Barrel]

I have mixed emotions on renewing my guns. If the gun is safe and serviceable but needs a bit of cleaning up I am not opposed to refinishing dented, scratched up wood that has lost it's original finish. If the barrels and trigger guards are worn but otherwise in good condition I will often have them re-blacked to protect them from oxidation but beyond that I leave them pretty much alone. I have done complete restorations on two guns. The first was an LC Smith I did just for the learning experience. The second was a cosmetically challenged Lefever graded gun that is mechanically sound but had been grossly neglected which I had the preeminent Lefever smith bring back to new condition. I am pleased with the results of both guns but it seems a though they lost their personalities in the re-finishing process.